Competitors

Chris Malloy: 1991 Nissan Pao

In 2018, Chris Malloy browsed the internet and looked for his next project car. "I just knew I wanted to get something different," he mentions. Malloy saw an odd little car on a Japanese auction site. It was a Nissan Pao. He got in touch with an import company, The Import Guys, and started the search. "I placed bids on many Paos and just couldn't win any of the auctions," Malloy remembers. "I decided to look outside of Japan, and that's when I found her in England." After spending a few thousand, the Pao was on her way to the States. It took about 3 months for it to be delivered to Malloy's garage.

"I'm not going to lie," Malloy starts, "if you want to import any car you have to be patient during the process. It will be a pain."

Without the help of guys like Jon Togans (JT Motors), Matt Newton (Newts Speed Shop) and Mike Arrastia, Nissan Master Technician, Malloy's Pao would have never run right. Many places turned him away after they saw the car. "I guess they were scared," he mentions. The body work was done by S&M Autobody in North Las Vegas. They executed everything he wanted and were done within 4 weeks. "The car looked better than new."

After a quick call to BF Goodrich by his Hybrid teammates, Malloy was able to find BFGoodrich g-Force Sport COMP-2 tires that worked just right for the Pao. Topped off with some oil from Amsoil, the Pao is where it is today.

History: In the late 80s, Nissan wanted to make a retro style car. The Pao was second in a series of four cars designed by the Pike factory. There were only about 30,000 units made, but there were about 200,000 pre-orders. Nissan only made this car from 1989-1991. Pao is a Chinese word meaning a "Mongolian portable dwelling".